Gahh Now I have to buy this and ME2 and DA:O and gahh... so many games, so little time.

Great review!

Thanks for the guide

The more money you spend, the more lethal they become. To ensure that they don’t act as XP fodder, they start to get equipped with structure destroying weapons.

This has made a big differnce IMHO - pirates can quickly become a real threat instead of just an annoyance or (as stated) XP fodder.  They can wipe out colonies.  There's a nice little balance going on here - you spend money on sending pirates against your enemies, the pirates spend that money getting stronger, those pirates then come back at you and bite your ass.

Nice. I think I'm gonna get this.

Nice finally a guide to the final expansion of the game, long overdue

Thanks for the tour. A question: does the AI also backstab allies or is it very predictable in the sense that it won't attack allies above a certain relationship level? Can you also bribe players with which you have bad relations in the sense that everyone has his price?

no new race?

What are the available options for "fleet sizes"? Thanks in advance

Thanks for the post, brad.  I'm still learning the new system and this helps. 

Is there a list somewhere with the new maps that came with Diplomacy?

I enjoy this so much, this expansion was perfect, I can't wait to try it online!

Sorry for the stupid question but ... f you downloaded Sins and then the two expansion packs, how to you play "trinity" .. or just by loading the diplomacy expansion, entrenchment is loaded as well?

 The final expansion?

i can't update with my reg code wtf gdamit aaargh grrrr ugh sigh fistshake

I was just wondering how to play Trinity myself - I just loaded up diplomacy and yes, the entrenchment tech tree is available. I'm guessing playing entrenchment omits the diplomacy tree, and playing Sins omits both expansions, but I haven't tested it.